Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker accused President Donald Trump of being a “man who’s suffering dementia” in their escalating feud over National Guard deployment in his state — despite the Democrat once backing former President Joe Biden’s mental fitness. 

Texas National Guard troops arrived in Illinois on Tuesday to protect federal personnel and property amid anti-immigration protests, the Pentagon confirmed. A Pentagon official said 200 guardsmen were mobilized for an initial 60-day period. 

“This is a man who’s suffering dementia,” Pritzker said Tuesday about Trump, according to The Chicago Tribune. “This is a man who has something stuck in his head. He can’t get it out of his head. He doesn’t read. He doesn’t know anything that’s up to date. It’s just something in the recesses of his brain that is effectuating to have him call out these cities.” 

“And then, unfortunately, he has the power of the military, the power of the federal government to do his bidding, and that’s what he’s doing,” Pritzker reportedly added. 

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The sharp criticism comes after Pritzker defended Biden following the release of a report from Special Counsel Robert Hur in February 2024 that described the former president as a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”  

“I smell a rat,” Pritzker was quoted as telling reporters the day after Hur’s report was made public. 

“It was extremely unfair for a Trump appointee, originally to the Department of Justice, to offer his own opinions about the mental acuity or age of the President of the United States,” Pritzker added, according to Politico. 

Pritzker further defended Biden’s fitness to serve. 

“I’ve been with the President of the United States many times, he is on the ball,” Pritzker said at a press conference in February 2024, according to WLS-TV. “The man knows more than most of us have forgotten. He knows so much more because he’s been in government for a number of years and has served in important positions.”

Biden later dropped his re-election bid in July after a disastrous debate performance against Trump. Biden’s own party quietly ceded to concerns over his fitness, mental competency and overall strength as a candidate as fallout from the debate overtook conversation on the campaign trail and on Capitol Hill. 

Military personnel in uniform, with the Texas National Guard patch on, are seen at the U.S. Army Reserve Center on Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025, in Elwood, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. (AP/Laura Bargfeld)

At a time Pritzker was being floated as potentially joining the Democratic ticket and was holding speaking engagements in battleground states, the Illinois governor released a statement on Biden’s decision to withdraw from the race. 

“President Joe Biden has dedicated his life in service to this nation, and its citizens are all the better for it. His is a storied political career culminating in one of the most accomplished and effective presidencies of our lifetime,” Pritzker said at the time. He praised Biden as having “restored dignity to the Oval Office, bringing the statesmanship and honor that have been the hallmarks of his years of service, back to the White House.” 

He also attacked Trump, adding, “We must not ignore the threat posed by Donald Trump’s potential return to the White House,” according to WMAQ-TV. Trump went on to win the November election. 

PRITZKER SUES TRUMP TO BLOCK NATIONAL GUARD ACTION IN ILLINOIS 

An X account affiliated with the Trump White House on Tuesday called Pritzker “one SICK scumbag,” sharing a clip of his recent interview with WGN. 

“What I know is, in the early days of Nazi regime, they started slowly but surely taking away people’s rights. And what we are seeing now is the very same thing. They have gone into cities now with the military,” Pritzker said in the clip posted on X by the White House Rapid Response team. “Think about that — in your lifetime have you ever seen anything like that? Where the President of the United States is sending military or troops dressed as military — ICE and CBP — in camouflage, with automatic weapons, into our major cities? It’s wrong.” 

Smoke is seen rising as federal law enforcement pushes back anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) protesters outside an ICE facility in Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 26, 2025. (Fox News)

The White House Rapid Response team said Pritzker “calls President Trump a Nazi — fomenting more deranged violence from his Radical Left lunatic supporters.” 

Trump on Wednesday said on Truth Social that Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson should be jailed for not defending ICE agents. The White House provided Fox News Digital with a statement elaborating on the president’s post, noting that 30 people were shot, five of whom died, in Chicago last week alone, yet “these Trump-Deranged buffoons would rather allow the violence to continue and attack the President for wanting to help make their city safe again.” 

The White House did not immediately address Pritzker’s specific “dementia” comment about Trump.

Fox News Digital also reached out to Pritzker’s office for comment but did not immediately hear back.

Fox News’ Brooke Singman, Aubrie Spady, Alexandra Koch and Patrick McGovern contributed to this report.